State receives help in fight against AIDS

ATLANTA -- Georgia has received $2.5 million in federal funding to link HIV-positive Georgians with treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant to the state Department of Public Health is mean to identify those who still do not have or are not seeking treatment. Health workers in Georgia's HIV unit last month reduced the waiting list for medication under the AIDS Drug Assistance Program to zero.

The state health department earlier this year adopted a national model of "treatment as prevention" in the fight against AIDS. The department says research indicates that a person with HIV is 96 percent less likely to pass the virus to others if they follow an appropriate treatment regimen.